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The Datafile PD-CD 5
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zippy
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ReadMe
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1995-03-30
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7KB
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146 lines
Announcing the official beta release of Info-ZIP's Zip and UnZip for Risc OS.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Intro
----
Info-ZIP's Zip/UnZip suite is a collection of programs written to perform
file compression and decompression based upon the zipfile routines as used
by Phil Katz (PKWARE) in PKZIP (for DOS). Its main advantage is its porta-
bility. It has been ported to many hundreds of computer platforms, and now
has been applied to Acorn's Risc OS machines.
Archiving? Hasn't that been covered by Spark?
--------------------------------------------
One of the driving forces behind the porting of Info-ZIP's code was the
inavailability of a free, professional archiver for Risc OS. Spark is a
commercial product, and good at that, but it is not free and is limited
to the Acorn world. Info-ZIP's software is copyrighted but free and is
available together with source code for anyone who wants to use it. As an
additional feature, Info-ZIP routines have been observed to give better
compression than the David Pilling programs, while taking less time to do
it. However, at the moment they are cli-only - ie you have to type the
commands into a taskwindow. This will change in the near future, with
the advent of a frontend, and possible Image filing system (this is a long
way down the authors' priority list, however).
CLI? Yuk! Who would want to use it?
----------------------------------
Zip/UnZip have the advantage that they can read and write archives from
many different computer platforms. Basically, any Unix, VMS, DOS, Mac,
Atari, Amiga, Win NT or OS/2 system, amongst rarer systems.
Yeah, but surely it can't deal with filetypes and Risc OS pathnames.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The Acorn ports of Zip/UnZip handle filetypes and translate pathnames
totally transparently. They can handle extentions to the point that they
can even sort your 'c' code out into the Acorn-format directories, then
reverse the procedure when you re-archive the files.
What about encryption? Being a US product it *can't* do that, can it?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Zipfiles can contain encryption devices for the entire archive, or select
files in the archive. Passwords are of significant length, and can
be verified (entered twice) to ensure correct entry. Once encrypted,
the file(s) cannot be retrieved without the correct password(s).
Due to US (munitions) export laws, all US distributions of the source
and executables are stripped of their 'zcrypt' capabilities, but any
non-US sites can store the complete systems.
Cool. Beta-vapour-crippleware. I'll have to fix the sources.
-----------------------------------------------------------
The first release is an official beta release. This means executables only.
This is done deliberately, as if errors are discovered, the authors will
make the changes, not you as users. The sources will be included in the next
public releases of Info-ZIP's Zip and UnZip. They can be compiled easily
using Acorn desktop C or GNU GCC.
Bet this is version 1.00. You can never trust v1.00.
---------------------------------------------------
The versions are as follows:
Zip 2.0j (later than 2.0.1)
UnZip 5.13c4
Zcrypt 2.5b
ZipNote 2.0j
ZipSplit 2.0j
fUnZip 3.85
What kind of fool do I look like? You're not going to release the sources.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The announcements for the source release will coincide with the next
Info-ZIP releases. They will be posted to comp.sys.acorn.announce. This
should take place it a few months, but it may be a bit longer - they are
being held up by other ports and a dissertation, and syncronising with
releases is easier said than done.
Hmm.. I might take a look at it. Where can I get it?
---------------------------------------------------
Releases have been made to the official Info-ZIP mirror site as
ftp://ftp.uu.net/pub/archiving/zip/RISCOS/
and the designated acorn-port sites of:
ftp://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~compsoc/public_html/aftp/acorn/infozip/
Non-US users are urged to use the european or australian site, as the jpl
site one does not contain the encryption instruments. (Decryption is
supported in all versions of UnZip.) Please ensure you use BINARY transfer
as this will seriously affect the performance of the resulting files (free
tip #1). There are a few files in the directories:
betarel.spk Spark-Arc of the beta release. Use SparkPlug.
betarel.zip Zip of the beta release. Use either infozip or
SparkFS/Sparkplug ( > v2.22)
The rest of the files are either documentation or executables. Filetype
them as 'absolute', and run them from a taskwindow or command-line.
Please note these are likely to be uploaded to more conventional acorn
ftp sites and BBSs shortly. The authors will not be responsible for this,
and will release latest versions to the official sites only. Therefore,
if you find a problem with your current version, please get the latest
from the official site before proceeding with a bug or 'help!' report.
To whom do I complain when it doesn't work?
------------------------------------------
The authors are:
Sergio Monesi Karl 'RiscMan' Davis
Via Trento e Trieste 30 PO BOX B23
20046 Biassono (MI) Boronia Park 2111
Italy AUSTRALIA
---------------------------- --------------------------------
pel0015@cdc8g5.cdc.polimi.it riscman@geko.com.au
sergio@phantom.com http://www.geko.com.au/riscman/
sergio@g386bsd.first.gmd.de RiscMan@f510.n712.z3.fidonet.org
Disclaimer.
----------
The authors make no guarantees about the functionality (or lack of it) of
the above files. They are entirely used at your own risk, as the authors
will accept no responsibility for the resulting inconvenience or data loss.
We also make no judgments on the suitability of other software to perform
this task, simply noting observations in paragraph #2. All trademarks
are copyrighted by their respective owners.
I'm not satisfied.. Can't you upload it to BBS 'X'?
--------------------------------------------------
No. Get it thyself. Geez.
Cheers!
+----------------------------+---------------------------------------------+
|.__ . . |---- You took the dog, you took the car, ----|
||__) o __ __ |\/| __ _ |--------- You left me on a monday; ----------|
|| \ (__ | `| | '__\ | ||----- The only thing you didn't take --------|
|| \ | ___)|__.| | (__) | ||---- Was my half-full bottle of Bundy. ------|
+-President of the Intel Removal Society, Regd off. ARMature II BBS Sydney-+